LYNN — Boston-based author Chanda Ouk Wolf visited Lynn Woods Elementary on Tuesday to read her book highlighting the importance of children understanding their own and others’ cultures as AAPI Awareness Month wrapped up.
Ouk Wolf, author of “A Dozen Delicious Donuts: A Sweet Cambodian-American Story,” has been sharing her experience of being Cambodian-American to strengthen Asian-American youth’s sense of identity.
“I know you guys are young now,” said Ouk Wolf to the assembly of second and third graders on Tuesday, “but I made this book so you can know this [information] for the future.”
As the daughter of two Cambodian genocide survivors who fled to Thailand, the Philippines, and then came to the United States in the early 1980s, Ouk Wolf grew up with little to no stories about her heritage.
Her goal has been to change that sense of cultural invisibility for the betterment of the next generation of Asian Americans. “A Dozen Delicious Donuts” blends storytelling with history into a digestible story about acceptance of other cultures.
The donut recipe came from Ouk Wolf’s grandmother, preserved through immigration to America by sewing it into the inside of her jacket pocket. She translated this experience into a story about understanding one’s culture through a grandmother and granddaughter’s relationship with food, and a bake-off competition at school.
After living in survival mode her whole life, Ouk Wolf never felt comfortable sharing her Cambodian heritage, even speaking the Cambodian dialect, Khmer. The sense of hiding away soon changed after her son asked her what it meant to be Cambodian-American.
“Other than surviving, now we’re living and becoming part of society,” Ouk Wolf said.
Creating a platform for Asian-American youth has been not only Ouk Wolf’s goal, but the city of Lynn’s. Starting in 2023, Lynn Public Schools introduced the Genocide Education Program, funding events like Ouk Wolf’s book reading through the history and social studies curriculum office.
The grant covers grades Pre-K through Grade 12. “The elementary students learn about the culture but not the heavy material like in high school,” said Kristen Tobacco, the assistant director of Curriculum & Instruction at Lynn Public Schools.
Lynn Woods Elementary was the sixth Lynn public school visited by Ouk Wolf and Tobacco within four days, influencing more than 500 children.
A concept Ouk Wolf mentioned throughout the promotion of her book was for children to put up metaphorical “mirrors and windows” to themselves and others, creating a sense of understanding of their own culture and a level of acceptance and acknowledgment toward others’ cultures.
“The most important skill you can teach your child is to understand other cultures,” said Ouk Wolf. “I want to help these children be good and do good things.”
The principal of Lynn Woods Elementary, Sean Morris, expressed how much compassion he feels for moments like these, when he recognizes such a large and overlooked Asian-American community in his school.
Watching children’s faces light up from being seen for their culture, and their friends nudging and smiling encouraged the sense of recognition for those students, Morris said.
“It just reinforces what we try to teach our kids about — acceptance, differences, and acknowledgment,” Morris said.
In just a year and a half of being published, “A Dozen Delicious Donuts” won a gold medal in the 2025 Literary Titan Book Award, and sold out in physical copies, Ouk Wolf said.
The process of writing helped her come out of her shell, helping make the invisible visible, she said. “In my culture we’re told to be quiet, not cause trouble, and to not be on anyone’s radar. That upbringing makes you feel more invisible.”
Tobacco shared that in her years of teaching, she noticed that when schools get involved in overlooked cultural conversations, that’s when they make their way home with the students.
Lynn Woods Elementary took the initiative to get physical copies of Ouk Wolf’s books to foster those at-home conversations.
“Everyone in second grade is going to get to take a copy home,” said Morris after the assembly, adding that more copies of the books will also be available in the classrooms and read to the students again by teachers.
Ouk Wolf looks forward to what the next generation can do with the proper knowledge under their wings. She advocates for starting the conversations and questions at a younger age to create an earlier sense of acceptance about their cultural identity.
“If I don’t tell my story, who’s going to tell it?” Ouk Wolf said.
